The Morning GIF: Sean Botwinick's empire state of mind

New York artist Sean Botwinick lets you walk a mile in his shoes with this streel-level GIF.

Here at the Daily Dot, we have an unofficial tradition of sharing GIF images with each other every morning. Now we’re looping you into the circle. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular—or just plain cool—GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.

Creating a great piece of art often involves stepping out of your comfort zone and looking a little weird.

That was the case for Sean Botwinick, 27, who decided to chronicle his walk home to his New York apartment one night. He did so by stopping every few feet, holding out his iPhone in front of him, and snapping a photo using a fish eye lens.

“I definitely got a couple weird glances and even ran into my neighbor, who probably now thinks I'm a freak weirdo,” Botwinick, a marketing design director at Complex Media, told the Daily Dot. “Every art form has it's price so I don't mind.”

Botwinick turned more than 40 black-and-white photos into a GIF that has collected 373 Tumblr notes in less than a day.

The animation is one of many chronicling simple moments in Botwinick’s day, such as standing on the corner or watching food cook on a skillet. Each animation is different, and yet they all reflect his endless fascination with New York life, Botwinick said.

I always felt it's a shame that these small once-in-a-lifetime moments you experience while walking around New York get lost in the shuffle. Even if you tell a story of your experience to a friend, it just never comes across as vividly as a nice visual....or even better, a moving visual. Pertaining to NYC specifically, I believe that everyone in the world is interested in a small window to our everyday life.

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